Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Regulating Complexity: Policies for the Governance of Non-timber Forest Products

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Non-Timber Forest Products in the Global Context

Part of the book series: Tropical Forestry ((TROPICAL,volume 7))

Abstract

Products from the wild, also known as non-timber forest products (NTFPs), are used as medicines, foods, spices, fibers, and fuel and for a multitude of other purposes. They contribute substantially to rural livelihoods and generate revenue for companies and governments, and their use has a range of impacts on biodiversity conservation. However, throughout the world, NTFPs have been both overlooked and poorly regulated by governments. Inappropriate policies have not only led to over-exploitation but also generated new forms of inequity. Drawing upon cases from around the world, this chapter reviews these experiences and provides information to support new policy approaches toward NTFP regulation and the broader issues of governance associated with these products.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Alexiades MN (2002) Cat’s claw (U. guianensis and U. tomentosa). In: Shanley P, Pierce AR, Laird SA, Guillen A (eds) Tapping the green market: certification and management of non-timber forest products. People and Plants Conservation Series. Earthscan, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Alexiades MN, Shanley P (2005) Forest products, livelihoods and conservation; case studies of non-timber forest product systems, vol 3 – Latin America. CIFOR, Bogor, Indonesia

    Google Scholar 

  • Antypas A, McLain RJ, Gilden J (2002) Federal non-timber forest products policy and management. In: Jones ET, McLain RJ, Weigand J (eds) Non-timber forest products in the United States. University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS

    Google Scholar 

  • Areki F, Cunningham AB (2010) Fiji commerce, carving and customary tenure. In: Laird SA, McLain, RJ, Wynberg RP (eds) Wild governance – finding policies that work for non-timber forest products. Earthscan, London, pp 229–242

    Google Scholar 

  • Arnold JEM, Ruiz Pérez M (1996) Current issues in non-timber forest products research. Center for International Forestry Research, Bogor, Indonesia

    Google Scholar 

  • Arnold JEM, Ruiz Pérez M (2001) Can non-timber forest products match tropical forest conservation and development objectives? Ecol Econ 39:437–447

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arquiza YD, Guerrero MCS, Gatmaytan AB, Aquino AC (2010) From barter trade to Brad Pitt’s bed: NTFPs and ancestral domains in the Philippines. In: Laird SA, McLain RJ, Wynberg RP (eds) Wild governance – finding policies that work for non-timber forest products. Earthscan, London, pp 155–182

    Google Scholar 

  • Baird IG, Dearden P (2003) Biodiversity conservation and resource tenure regimes: a case study from northeast Cambodia. Environ Manage 32:541–550

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bennett B (2006) Foreign direct investment in South Africa: how big is southern africa’s natural product opportunity and what trade issues impede sectoral development? Regional Trade Facilitation Programme, Pretoria

    Google Scholar 

  • Biswas T, Potts J (2003) Grounds for action: looking for a sustainable solution to the coffee crisis. Bridges 7:17–18

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown HCP (2005) Governance of non-wood forest products and community forests in the humid forest zone of Cameroon. PhD thesis, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

    Google Scholar 

  • Burgener M (2007) Trade measures – tools to promote the sustainable use of NWFP? An assessment of trade-related instruments influencing the international trade in non-wood forest products and associated management and livelihood strategies. Non-Wood Forest Products Working Document no 6, FAO, Rome

    Google Scholar 

  • Cole D, Nakamhela U (2008) Review and clarification of procedures for the issuing of permits for the collection and export of biological resources in Namibia. Unpublished report, Centre for Research Information Action in Africa and Southern African Development and Consulting (CRIAA SA-DC), Windhoek, Namibia

    Google Scholar 

  • Commission on Intellectual Property Rights (2002) Integrating intellectual property rights and development policy. Report of the Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, September, London. http://www.iprcommission.org/papers/pdfs/final_report/CIPR_Exec_Sumfinal.pdf. Accessed 16 May 2008

  • Cronkleton P, Pacheco P (2010) Changing policy trends in the emergence of Bolivia’s Brazil nut sector. In: Laird SA, McLain RJ, Wynberg RP (eds) Wild governance – finding policies that work for non-timber forest products. Earthscan, London, pp 15–42

    Google Scholar 

  • Cunningham AB (2001) Applied ethnobotany, people, wild plant use and conservation. Earthscan, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Cunningham AB, Garnett S, Gorman J, Courtenay K, Boehme D (2009) Eco-enterprises and Terminalia ferdinandiana: best laid plans and Australian policy lessons. Econ Bot 63:16–28

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dewees PA, Scherr SJ (1996) Policies and markets for non-timber tree products. EPTD discussion paper no. 16, Environment and Production Technology Division, International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Dowie M (2005) Conservation refugees: when protecting nature means kicking people out, Orion Magazine, November/December, pp 16–27, abridged version available at http://www.orionsociety.org/index.php/articles/article/161. Accessed 7 June 2009

  • Dutfield G (2002) Sharing the benefits of biodiversity: Is there a role for the patent system? J World Intellect Prop 5:899–932

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dyke A, Emery M (2010) NTFPs in Scotland: changing attitudes to access rights in a reforesting land. In: Laird SA, McLain RJ, Wynberg RP (eds) Wild governance – finding policies that work for non-timber forest products. Earthscan, London, pp 135–154

    Google Scholar 

  • Fantini AC, Guries RP, Ribeiro RJ (2005) Palm heart (Euterpe edulis Mart.) in the Brazilian Atlantic rainforest: a vanishing resource. In: Alexiades MN, Shanley P (eds) Forest products, livelihoods and conservation; Case studies of non-timber forest product systems, vol 3 – Latin America. CIFOR, Bogor, Indonesia, pp 83–110

    Google Scholar 

  • Fiji Islands (1992) Forest Decree No. 31 of 1992, A Decree Relating to Forest and Forest Produce, Government of the Sovereign Democratic Republic of Fiji

    Google Scholar 

  • Gebhardt M (1998) Sustainable use of biodiversity by the pharmaceutical industry? Int J Sustain Dev 1:63–72

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Granich CI, Purata SE, Edouard F, Pardo MFS, Tovar C (2010) Overcoming barriers in collectively managed ntfps in mexico. In: Laird SA, McLain RJ, Wynberg RP (eds) Wild governance – finding policies that work for non-timber forest products. Earthscan, London, pp 205–228

    Google Scholar 

  • Hayes PB (2000) Enhancing the competitiveness of the rooibos industry. M.Phil thesis, University of Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch, South Africa

    Google Scholar 

  • Hecht SB, Anderson AB, May P (1988) The subsidy from nature: shifting cultivation, successional palm forests, and rural development. Hum Organ 47:25–35

    Google Scholar 

  • Hersch-Martinez P (1995) Commercialisation of wild medicinal plants from southwest Puebla, Mexico. Econ Bot 49:197–206

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Iqbal M (1993) International trade in non-wood forest products: an overview, FAO Misc/93/11 Working Paper. Food and Agriculture Organisation, Rome

    Google Scholar 

  • Jaireth H, Smyth D (eds) (2003) Innovative governance: indigenous peoples, local communities, and protected areas. World Conservation Union, Ane Books, New Delhi

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones ET, McLain RJ, Weigand J (eds) (2002) Non-timber forest products in the United States. University of Kansas Press, Lawrence, KS

    Google Scholar 

  • Kanga K (1999) Trade of main wild berries in Finland. Silva Fennica 33:159–168

    Google Scholar 

  • King SR, Meza EN, Carlson TJS, Chinnock JA, Moran K, Borges JR (1999) Issues in the commercialisation of medicinal plants. HerbalGram 47:46–51

    Google Scholar 

  • Kluppel MP, Ferreira JCP, Chaves JH, Hummel AC (2010) Case study A: in search of regulations to promote the sustainable use of NTFPs in Brazil 43. In: Laird SA, McLain RJ, Wynberg RP (eds) Wild governance – finding policies that work for non-timber forest products. Earthscan, London, pp 43–52

    Google Scholar 

  • Kusters K, Achdiawan R, Belcher B, Ruiz Pérez M (2006) Balancing development and conservation? An assessment of livelihood and environmental outcomes of non-timber forest product trade in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Ecol Soc 11(2):20

    Google Scholar 

  • Laird SA, Ingram V, Awono A, Ndoye O, Sunderland T, Fotabong EL, Nkuinkeu R (2010) Bringing together customary and statutory systems: the struggle to develop a legal and policy framework for NTFPs in Cameroon. In: Laird SA, McLain RJ, Wynberg RP (eds) Wild governance – finding policies that work for non-timber forest products. Earthscan, London, pp 53–70

    Google Scholar 

  • Lele S, Pattanaik M, Isoni O (2010) NTFPs in India: rhetoric and reality. In: Laird SA, McLain RJ, Wynberg RP (eds) Wild governance – finding policies that work for non-timber forest products. Earthscan, London, pp 85–111

    Google Scholar 

  • Lynch OJ, Alcorn JB (1994) Tenurial rights and community-based conservation. In: Western D, Wright M (eds) Natural connections: perspectives in community-based conservation. Island, Washington, DC, pp 373–392

    Google Scholar 

  • Marshall E, Schreckenberg K, Newton AC (2006) Commercialisation of non-timber forest products: factors influencing success: lessons learned from Mexico and Bolivia and policy implications for decision-makers. Issue 23, UNEP-WCMC Biodiversity Series

    Google Scholar 

  • McLain RJ, Lynch K (2010) Managing floral greens in a globalised economy: resource tenure, labour relations and immigration policy in the Pacific Northwest, USA. In: Laird SA, McLain RJ, Wynberg RP (eds) Wild governance – finding policies that work for non-timber forest products. Earthscan, London, pp 183–198

    Google Scholar 

  • McManis CR (2007) Biodiversity and the law: intellectual property, biotechnology and traditional knowledge. Earthscan, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Menzies NK, Li C (2010) One eye on the forest, one eye on the market: multi-tiered regulation of matsutake harvesting, conservation and trade in north-western Yunnan Province. In: Laird SA, McLain RJ, Wynberg RP (eds) Wild governance – finding policies that work for non-timber forest products. Earthscan, London, pp 243–264

    Google Scholar 

  • Michon G (2005) NTFP development and poverty alleviation: is the policy context favourable. In: Pfund JL, Robinson P (eds) Non-timber forest products: between poverty alleviation and market forces. Intercooperation, Switzerland

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell DA, Tedder S, Brigham T, Cocksedge W, Hobby T (2010) policy gaps and invisible elbows: NTFPs in British Columbia. In: Laird SA, McLain RJ, Wynberg RP (eds) Wild governance – finding policies that work for non-timber forest products. Earthscan, London, pp 113–134

    Google Scholar 

  • Nalvarte Armas W, de Jong W (2005) Potentials and perspective of cat’s claw (Uncaria tomentosa). In: Alexiades MN, Shanley P (eds) Forest products, livelihoods and conservation; Case studies of non-timber forest product systems, vol 3, Latin America. CIFOR, Bogor, Indonesia, pp 281–298

    Google Scholar 

  • Ndoye O, Awono A (2010) Case study B: policies for Gnetum spp. trade in Cameroon: overcoming constraints that reduce benefits and discourage sustainability. In: Laird SA, McLain RJ, Wynberg RP (eds) Wild governance – finding policies that work for non-timber forest products. Earthscan, London, pp 71–76

    Google Scholar 

  • Neumann RP, Hirsch E (2000) Commercialisation of non-timber forest products: review and analysis of research. Centre for International Forestry Research, Bogor, Indonesia

    Google Scholar 

  • Nott K, Wynberg R (2008) Millennium challenge account Namibia compact, vol 4: Thematic analysis report – indigenous natural products. Namibia strategic environmental assessment, task order under the Project Development, Project Management, Environmental and General Engineering ID/IQ Contract no. MCC-06–0087-CON-90, Task Order No. 02, ARD, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Novellino D (2010) From indigenous customary practices to policy interventions: the ecological and sociocultural underpinnings of the non-timber forest trade on Palawan Island, the Philippines. In: Laird SA, McLain RJ, Wynberg RP (eds) Wild governance – finding policies that work for non-timber forest products. Earthscan, London, pp 83–198

    Google Scholar 

  • Ortiz EG (2002) Brazil nut. In: Shanley P, Pierce A, Laird S, Guillen A (eds) Tapping the green market: certification and management of non-timber forest products. Earthscan, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Padoch C (1988) The economic importance and marketing of forest and fallow products in the Iquitos region. In: Denevan WM, Padoch C (eds) Swidden fallow agroforestry in the Peruvian Amazon. Advances in Economic Botany 5. New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY, pp 74–89

    Google Scholar 

  • Peters CM (1996) The ecology and management of non-timber forest resources. World Bank Technical Paper No 322, World Bank, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • PhytoTrade Africa (2006) PhytoTrade Africa’s approach. http://www.phytotradeafrica.com/about/approach.htm. Accessed 7 June 2009

  • Pierce A, Burgener M (2010) Laws and policies impacting trade in NTFPs. In: Laird SA, McLain RJ, Wynberg RP (eds) Wild governance – finding policies that work for non-timber forest products. Earthscan, London, pp 327–342

    Google Scholar 

  • Republic of Cameroon (1994) Law No 94/01 of 20 January 1994 to Lay Down Forestry. Yaoundé, Republic of Cameroon, Wildlife and Fisheries Regulations

    Google Scholar 

  • República de Bolivia (1996a) Ley Forestal (Forestry Law) No 1700 of 11 July 1996. El Congreso Nacional, La Paz, Bolivia

    Google Scholar 

  • República de Bolivia (1996b) Ley del Servicio Nacional de Reforma Agraria (National Agrarian Reform Law) No 1715 of 18 October 1996. El Congreso Nacional, La Paz, Bolivia

    Google Scholar 

  • Richards RT, Saastamoinen O (2010) NTFP policy, access to markets and labour issues in Finland: impacts of regionalisation and globalisation on the wild berry industry. In: Laird SA, McLain RJ, Wynberg RP (eds) Wild governance – finding policies that work for non-timber forest products. Earthscan, London, pp 287–308

    Google Scholar 

  • Schreckenberg K (2004) The contribution of shea butter (Vitellaria paradoxa CF Gaertner) to local livelihoods in Benin. In: Sunderland T, Ndoye O (eds) Forest products, livelihoods and conservation: case studies of non-timber forest product systems, vol 2 – Africa. Centre for International Forestry Research, Bogor, Indonesia

    Google Scholar 

  • Shackleton S (2010) Case study D: overregulation and complex bureaucratic procedure: a disincentive for compliance? The case of a valuable carving wood in Bushbuckridge, South Africa. In: Laird SA, McLain RJ, Wynberg RP (eds) Wild governance – finding policies that work for non-timber forest products. Earthscan, London, pp 287–308

    Google Scholar 

  • Shackleton CM, Shackleton SE (2004) The importance of non-timber forest products in rural livelihood security and as safety nets: a review of evidence from South Africa. S Afr J Sci 100:658–664

    Google Scholar 

  • Shackleton CM, Botha J, Emanuel PL (2003) Productivity and abundance of Sclerocarya birrea subsp. caffra in and around rural settlements and protected areas of the Bushbuckridge lowveld, South Africa. For Trees Livelihood 13:217–232

    Google Scholar 

  • Shanley P, Medina G (2005) Frutíferas e plantas úteis na vida Amazônica. CIFOR/Imazon, Belém, Brazil. http://www.cifor.cgiar.org/publications/pdf_files/Books/BShanley0501.pdf

  • Shanley P, Pierce AR, Laird SA, Guillen A (2002) Tapping the green market: certification and management of non-timber forest products. People and Plants Conservation Series. Earthscan, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Soldán MP (2003) The impact of certification on the sustainable use of Brazil Nut (Bertholletia excelsa) in Bolivia. Non-Wood Forest Products Programme, Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations. http://www.fao.org/forestry/foris/pdf/NWFP/Brazilnuts.pdf. Accessed 2 October 2008

  • Southgate D, Coles-Ritchie M, Salazar-Canelos P (1996) Can tropical forests be saved by harvesting non-timber products? A case study for Ecuador. In: Adamowicz WL (ed) Forestry, economics and the environment. CAB International, Wallingford, UK, pp 68–80

    Google Scholar 

  • Stockdale M (2005) Steps to sustainable and community-based NTFP management. Non-Timber Forest Products-Exchange Programme for South and Southeast Asia, The Philippines

    Google Scholar 

  • Stoian D (2005a) What goes up must come down: the economy of palm heart (Euterpe precatoria Mart.) in the Northern Bolivian Amazon. In: Alexiades MN, Shanley P (eds) Forest products, livelihoods and conservation; Case studies of non-timber forest product systems, vol 3: Latin America. CIFOR, Bogor, Indonesia, pp 111–134

    Google Scholar 

  • Stoian D (2005b) Harvesting windfalls: the Brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa) economy in the Bolivian Amazon. In: Alexiades MN, Shanley P (eds) Forest products, livelihoods and conservation; Case studies of non-timber forest product systems, vol 3, Latin America. CIFOR, Bogor, Indonesia, pp 83–110

    Google Scholar 

  • Sunderland TCH, Ndoye O (eds) (2004) Forest products, livelihoods and conservation: case studies of non-timber forest product systems, vol 2: Africa. Center for International Forestry Research, Bogor, Indonesia

    Google Scholar 

  • Sunderland T, Asaha S, Balinga M, Isoni O (2010) Case study C: regulatory issues for Bush Mango (Irvingia spp.) trade in southwest Cameroon and southeast Nigeria. In: Laird SA, McLain RJ, Wynberg RP (eds) Wild governance – finding policies that work for non-timber forest products. Earthscan, London, pp 77–84

    Google Scholar 

  • Tomich TP (1996) Market, policies and institutions in NTFP trade: nothing is perfect. In: Leakey RRB, Temu AB, Melnyk M, Vantomme P (eds) Domestication and commercialisation of non-timber forest products in agroforestry systems. Non-Wood Forest Products no 9, FAO, Rome

    Google Scholar 

  • Wynberg RP (2006) Identifying pro-poor best practice models of commercialisation of southern African non-timber forest products. PhD thesis, Graduate School of Environmental Studies, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow

    Google Scholar 

  • Wynberg RP (2010) Navigating a way through regulatory frameworks for Hoodia use, conservation, trade and benefit sharing. In: Laird SA, McLain RJ, Wynberg RP (eds) Wild governance – finding policies that work for non-timber forest products. Earthscan, London, pp 113–134

    Google Scholar 

  • Wynberg RP, Laird SA (2007) Less is often more: governance of a non-timber forest product, marula (Sclerocarya birrea subsp. caffra) in southern Africa. Int For Rev 9:475–490

    Google Scholar 

  • Wynberg R, Silveston J, Lombard C (2009) Value adding in the southern African natural products sector: how much do patents matter? In: The economics of intellectual property in South Africa. World Intellectual Property Organisation, Geneva

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This chapter draws from an edited volume titled Wild Product Governance: finding policies that work for non-timber forest products, edited by Sarah A. Laird, Rebecca J. McLain and Rachel P. Wynberg, and published by Earthscan in 2010 (http://www.peopleandplants.org). We are grateful to the contributors of that book for providing rich material from which to develop a synthesis. Financial and institutional support was provided by People and Plants International, the Environmental Evaluation Unit (University of Cape Town), the Institute for Culture and Ecology, the United Nations University and the Center for International Forestry Research. The Christensen Fund also provided invaluable support to the research and writing process. Additional financial support was given to Rachel Wynberg by South Africa’s National Research Foundation (NRF) although any opinion or findings expressed in this book are those of the authors alone.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. People and Plants International, 251, Bristol, VT, 05443, USA

    Sarah A. Laird

  2. Environmental Evaluation Unit, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, 7700, South Africa

    Rachel Wynberg

  3. Institute for Culture and Ecology, 6681, Portland, OR, 97214, USA

    Rebecca J. McLain

Authors
  1. Sarah A. Laird
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Rachel Wynberg
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Rebecca J. McLain
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sarah A. Laird .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Environmental Science, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, 6140, South Africa

    Sheona Shackleton

  2. Dept. Environmental Science, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, 6140, South Africa

    Charlie Shackleton

  3. Forestry Research (CIFOR), Center for International, Bogor, Indonesia

    Patricia Shanley

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Laird, S.A., Wynberg, R., McLain, R.J. (2011). Regulating Complexity: Policies for the Governance of Non-timber Forest Products. In: Shackleton, S., Shackleton, C., Shanley, P. (eds) Non-Timber Forest Products in the Global Context. Tropical Forestry, vol 7. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-17983-9_11

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation